NFC Forum members show of NFC solutions in Frankfurt

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NFC Forum members show of NFC solutions in Frankfurt

The NFC Forum and some of its members are showing off some NFC solutions over in Frankfurt, Germany this next week. But why? At the end of the day, NFC is just another secure little protocol that has the added ability to work with tags just like its older brother, RFID. It is pretty cool in and of itself, but really nothing to get overly excited about. Strange that coming from us? Not really. We have never been enchanted by the actual technology as it is nothing new or remarkable outside of the fact that a radio frequency can power a small chip and antenna with nothing more than a radio field. NFC operates at 13.56 MHz. Data speeds range from 106 kbit/s to 848 kbit/s. NFC Tags only store small amounts of information, currently between 96 and 512 bytes of memory. Kind of a dry subject matter, eh? It isn’t that NFC isn’t an interesting technology, but it is hardly as bleeding edge as quantum computers and hadron colliders.

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Narian shows off NFC retail experience solutions at NRF show

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Narian shows off NFC retail experience solutions at NRF show

Yes, the NRF show has just finished up and Narian Technologies was on the floor showing off its full suite of non-payment NFC services that help retailers maximize profits cost effectively. If you are an NFC enthusiast and haven’t heard of Narian Technologies we only have one thing to say to you – Have you been living under a rock for the last year or so? Narian is far older than a year old though, and led by industry expert, Einar Rosenberg. When Narian isn’t helping the top names in NFC develop new products, services or simply giving consulting services, the firm is hard at work developing and deploying its own full suite of retail services that use NFC to prevent lost sales and maximize profit in retail situations.

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Inside Secure supports new Kovio RF Barcode ready NFC tags

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Inside Secure supports new Kovio RF Barcode ready NFC tags

Inside Secure has announced that it now supports the Kovio RF Barcode ready NFC tags in its Open NFC protocol stack. Okay, that may be a bit of a clunky headline, so allow us to explain why this is big news and what it means for the adoption of NFC on the whole. The overall goal of NFC tags has been to allow them to become very cost effective, especially for retail usage. The concept that has been flying around over the last few years has been printed NFC tags that use printed silicon to achieve mass market penetration at a fraction of the cost of conventional NFC tags.

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WIMA NFC Monaco 2012 calls for papers to be submitted

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WIMA NFC Monaco 2012 calls for papers to be submitted for its 2012 6th Global NFC Applications Products & Services Congress

As we mentioned in our last post WIMA Monaco is getting closer and here is the opportunity to present in front of delegates at the conference or have your paper published in the conference programme. WIMA generally attracts attendees and speakers from every facet of the burgeoning NFC ecosystem. This year there is also opportunities for Near Field Communication solution providers to make a joint presentation with an end user partner.

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NFC Forum and WIMA Monaco call for entries for NFC competition

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NFC Forum and WIMA Monaco call for entries for the Tap Into Innovation: NFC Global Competition 2012

WIMA Monaco is coming up fast, and in our small but rapidly growing industry we like to call NFC, it’s kind of a big deal to win an award at WIMA. The NFC Forum and WIMA get together and put on the Tap Into Innovation: NFC Global Competition every year, and more than a few companies apply for the honor. So, if your firm thrives on being recognized as an innovator in the NFC space and you want your profile raised, it probably wouldn’t hurt you too much to enter the WIMA competition.

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Broadcom brings NFC and apps to 2 billion existing TVs

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Broadcom brings NFC and apps to 2 billion existing TVs by converting them to Smart TVs

This morning sees Broadcom make an exciting announcement that is likely to change the way we use TV and, of course, incorporates NFC. We have seen the Boxee Box, we have seen Apple TV and we have seen Google TV and the Roku box. Many consumers are abandoning the airwaves in preference to connected apps on Smart TVs, but as yet there has been no NFC incorporated. That is set to change with this morning’s announcement from Broadcom, who are probably one of the largest semiconductor firms in the US.

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NFC Taxis hit multiple US cities with NBC & VeriFone

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NFC Taxis hit multiple US cities with NBC & VeriFone as they partner for NFC based out-of-home marketing using NBC and Universal content

NBCUniversal has announced that along with VeriFone, it intends to advertise and interact with consumers in captive out-of-home locations starting with NFC taxis in multiple US cities. Consumers can expect to gain access to NBC’s news, information and entertainment programming in more than 12,000 taxi cabs as well as at thousands of gas stations which started a couple of days ago. NBC also plans to use NFC marketing on other digital out-of-home platforms in the future.

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VeriFone completes Point acquisition, NFC payments all around

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VeriFone completes Point acquisition solidifying the firm’s position in Northern Europe and also refinances some debt ready for NFC adoption by retailers

VeriFone appears to be growing larger and larger as today’s news announces that the firm has just completed its merger of Northern European payment gateway company Point. VeriFone has taken some stick lately when the expected NFC bonanza didn’t come in the 3rd quarter of last year. That fact is that NFC adoption by retailers is largely out of VeriFone’s hands as the wallet wars obstruct earlier deployment and therefore the need for NFC POS terminals. However, that isn’t preventing VeriFone from readying itself for the expected new NFC payments landscape as the firm continues to buy up competitors in strategic markets.

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KPMG finds 23 percent of Americans very willing to use their mobile phones as an NFC wallet

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KPMG study finds that 23 percent of Americans very willing to use their smartphones as an NFC mobile wallet

KPMG has released its findings from a new survey it has conducted which found that 23% of Americans are “very willing” to use their NFC smartphones as mobile wallets. That is a quantum shift from where we were last May, but there are still concerns and obstacles to overcome before ubiquity happens. In fact, ubiquity isn’t really expected to happen until 2014, 2015 and onwards. Welcome to the year of NFC adoption.

Last year was the year of NFC discovery and early adopters, and 2012 is getting set up as the year of adoption and devices. Let’s not kid ourselves – 2012 is going to be a rocky path for NFC as it starts to gain traction and becomes a household name; but we will start to see more and more NFC devices hit the market, carriers start to embrace the technology and services to match. By this time next year, millions of consumers will have NFC smartphones and be using them as mobile wallets to varying degrees.

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Privacy Goes Public: Sharing Privacy for a Discount

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Privacy Goes Public: Sharing Privacy for a Discount

First things first – let’s get a little public with this privacy issue, shall we? For most people privacy starts where personal freedom ends. Yet there are many more complexities to the word, from personal snooping to sharing data online. Our focus today – sharing data and privacy. Consumers are concerned with privacy. True. But does that mean they are not willing to share it? False. Face it – as we continue to increase our social status as a global society, the more information we will inevitably share. Disturbing, right? It’s nothing new though. Who doesn’t own a loyalty card for a local grocery or retail store? Your data is held here and collected under your profile so they can ensure they offer products that fit your needs according to your shopping habits. Can we say “Facebook”? If you own a debit card, your bank knows your spending and buying patterns. Heck, they may know your habits better than you do. So, what is all the privacy fuss about?

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Verifone takes an NFC stock beating, perhaps unfairly

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Verifone takes an NFC stock beating, perhaps unfairly, due to unrealistic market expectations

We all know who Verifone is if we are interested in NFC mobile wallets and NFC payments. They are undoubtedly the largest player in the NFC point-of-sale business globally, and they are involved in most NFC payment projects on some level in the very complex ecosystem. However, Verifone has recently taken a painful beating on its stock price, which we can see between December 5th, when it traded at $44 a share, to December 14th, when it had fallen to just $35 per share. Ouch! Their fourth quarter earnings call wasn’t even until December 14th, so something is happening in the perception of Verifone’s viability to turn a profit. We are not going to go into P/E growth and other associated investment indicators in this post; we want to concentrate more on why this has happened to Verifone versus the reality of the situation. This perception that investors are adopting also has larger scale impacts on the rest of the NFC industry and Verifone may just be the fall guy that kicks off something grander in scale.

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Commonwealth Bank makes Kaching NFC mobile wallet official

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Commonwealth Bank makes Kaching NFC mobile wallet official

We already knew that Commonwealth Bank in Australia was trialling the Kaching NFC mobile wallet app for the iPhone, but the financial institution has now gone live with its app for all customers. You have to hand it to Australia, they struggled to find the value chain and ownership model for NFC just like the rest of the world, aside from perhaps Japan. There were endless, fruitless NFC mobile wallet trials too.

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PayPal tests NFC mobile wallet at a couple of Swedish retailers

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PayPal tests NFC mobile wallet at a couple of Swedish retailers

We first reported in September about the PayPal NFC mobile wallet called PayPal Instore in Sweden, where the firm got together with startup Accumulate to test out some NFC retail therapy. PayPal have been vocally cautious about NFC payments, NFC mobile wallets and anything else with the “N” word involved. In fact, eBay CEO, John Donahoe, went as far as saying that NFC stands for “not for commerce” earlier this year. Some have gone as far to suggest that PayPal’s opposition is a corporate policy to play down the role NFC is due to pay in payments in the next year or so and more strangely stifle its own NFC mobile wallet efforts. However, that opposition hasn’t stopped PayPal launching an NFC app for peer-to-peer money transfers or from conducting NFC mobile wallet tests in Sweden.

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NFC tags market to be worth $300 million in next five years says ABI Research

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NFC tags market to be worth $300 million in next five years says ABI Research

ABI Research has released a report that forecasts that NFC Smart Posters and mobile marketing could push the non-payment NFC tags market to a $300 million per year business by 2016. If you hang around the NFC industry for more than a nanosecond, you will soon become aware what a big deal NFC tags are. NFC tags are used in every non-payment, non-device iteration that NFC has to offer; including NFC stickers, NFC smart posters and even NFC stationary.

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UPM RFID & Waldemar Winckel offer NFC tags in Touch2go store

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UPM RFID & Waldemar Winckel offer NFC tags in Touch2go store

Today Europeans have another place to buy NFC tags from after UPM RFID and Waldemar Winckel, one of Europe’s leading RFID label manufacturers and system integrators, have got together to provide NFC tags through the Touch2go e-commerce store. Part of NFC tags becoming ubiquitous is having them available from many retailers in the market. UPM RFID have arguably formed more relationships and set up more partnerships than any other NFC tag manufacturer.

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Who wants a half price Verizon Galaxy Nexus NFC smartphone?

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Within the space of a few hours the Samsung Galaxy Nexus for Verizon has lost half of its purchase price

We knew the Samsung Galaxy Nexus NFC smartphone wouldn’t last at the premium price of $299 for very long, but even we didn’t think its price would be cut in half within a few hours of launch on Verizon. It has though, and Amazon are currently retailing the Samsung Galaxy Nexus NFC smartphone for a very tempting $149.99. That gets you the Android Ice Cream Sandwich touting, Face Unlock biometric boasting, Android Beam slinging pure Google experience phone.

Source: Amazon

Via: BGR

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Seven barriers to the growth of NFC mobile payments?

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Seven barriers to the growth of NFC mobile payments?

BillingViews today published a report / presentation called “The Seven Barriers to Mobile Payment Adoption” that primarily focuses on NFC payments and adds a dash of QR codes for good measure. BillingViews describes itself as “the global home for billing expertise and intelligence in the communications and media industries.” We can’t say we are feeling the report and disagree with it on a few levels. We do agree that there are barriers, we are just a little at odds with some of BilliingViews’ seven reasons.

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Galaxy Nexus NFC smartphone launched on Verizon finally

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Galaxy Nexus NFC smartphone launched on Verizon finally

Ah, what a relief to no longer have the need to speak about when Verizon will launch the Galaxy Nexus NFC smartphone. It’s done, it has happened and it’s sans Google Wallet. For us, the Galaxy Nexus specifically on Verizon has lost its luster. But if you still have a penchant for your own slice of Ice Cream Sandwich, you can head over to the Verizon Wireless website or pop into your local store. Do remember it’s nearly the holidays though and try not to give the Verizon retail staff members a hard time. It’s not their fault Verizon has acted like a complete…[enter your description here].

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INSIDE Secure supplies Intel with NFC tech and secure elements

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INSIDE Secure supplies Intel with NFC tech and secure elements

Intel has selected INSIDE Secure to supply it with its NFC technology as it moves further into the Near Field Communication industry. In the last few months, Intel has come from being absent in NFC to looking like a main proponent of the nascent technology. It was just last week that they upped their membership status in the NFC Forum to the top level of Sponsor and pulled up a chair at the big table of directors. It was around two months ago that we saw a tablet sporting an NFC logo at an Intel industry event also. One thing for sure is that Intel plans to add ubiquity to NFC, and in doing so will educate consumers about the technology on a mass scale.

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The Consumer’s Perception: 5 Fundamental Rules of Engagement for NFC

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The Consumer’s Perception: 5 Fundamental Rules of Engagement for NFC

What initiates engagement more than a need to connect? A need for a positive review, an inquiry, a complaint or even a purchase. Specifically, what opportunities for engagement of the consumer is there for near field communication (NFC) and why is the ongoing perception so weak? Near field communication is quite a ways from being a household name, especially in North America. Even with In-Stat, an NFC chip manufacturer, predicting 1.2 billion NFC chips to be shipped by 2015, which is 30% global penetration claiming more than 375 million people, NFC would appear to be quite a popular buzz word — that is a lot of chips! Yet, in the UK, for example, in a survey conducted by Opinion Matters for Gemalto, the world leader in digital security, it states only 32% of the consumers interviewed were familiar with NFC. Could you imagine what that number would be in the US?

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NFC, wine, logistics and consumers sounds like a great evening

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NFC, wine, logistics and consumers sounds like a great evening with a twist thanks to eProvenance and Near Field Solutions

eProvenance and Near Field Solutions have got together and combined NFC, humidity sensors and wine together in a MacGyver style project to create a new value added service for consumers, and a tracking and environmental tool for the winery. NFC has more applications than any one person can imagine. We continue to be amazed and impressed with use cases and innovative projects that are finding new ways to use Near Field Communication with other sensors. It is projected that the internet of things concept that adds NFC to many other sensor types will become commonplace within the next few years. eProvenance and Near Field Solutions are making the internet of things happen today, and this could be the first step in how luxury perishable products are sold globally within the next few years.

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Taggle social NFC retail shopping is here for consumers and retailers

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Taggles social retail apps use NFC and barcodes to create a social shopping experience all based on Amazon’s web services

Word of mouth marketing has always been the most powerful form of marketing that has ever existed. If you add to the a viral expansion loop model some NFC, a massive database of UPC product codes, some social sharing abilities and shopping you end up with Taggle. Taggle is a new shopping service that allows consumers to scan bar codes, QR codes or read NFC tags associated with retail purchases and either review them or give them a star rating. Users of the mobile apps don’t even need to sign up for an account. Once a product has been scanned, the social bit happens and users can share their buys on Facebook and Twitter.

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The fall and rise of ViVOtech, their NFC ecosystem and your pink slip

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If ViVOtech is not on your short list for NFC POS terminals, wallets and other services you should be fired!

ViVOtech – they’re the firm that sells NFC POS terminals, right? Wrong. Gone are the days where ViVOtech can be categorized as just a payments hardware firm who have niched themselves in NFC. These days ViVOtech are an NFC ecosystem unto themselves. After parting ways with Verifone, ViVOtech found themselves between a rock and a hard place. From what we hear had that old problem of more cash going out than was coming in. No different to most of America at this point then!

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Google Wallet experience is not great and needs improving

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Google Wallet experience is not great and needs improving

We are going to come straight out and say we are fans of Google Wallet. We think it’s great for consumers and wonderful for NFC. Having a brand name like Google behind NFC has started to educate consumers to what NFC can actually do and how much the nascent technology is set to change the way we interact with the physical and online world. Of course, the alternative being Isis helps add some sparkle to Google’s offering considering most of the US will be trapped in a closed Isis environment.

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Aditux demos NFC payments iCarte solution and more

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Aditux demos NFC payments iCarte solution

We like covering Aditux because the firm is always up to something new. We imagine their dev labs being like that of a mad professor with projects going on all over the place. From Nokia apps, to NFC tag management and writing software, Aditux crosses industries and sectors developing innovative solutions that use NFC. We met up with the CEO of Aditux, Jayden Khakurel, to find out about their latest and greatest project that moves Aditux into the NFC payments sector, and to see what the firm had developed.

Aditux has been working with the iCarte iPhone case to develop some NFC payments software for both retailers and consumers. Obviously with Apple not including NFC in the iPhone 4S, this has given developers a great opportunity to write NFC mobile wallet apps without competing with Cupertino at this point. What we like about the Aditux wallet is the fact it isn’t reliant on the iCarte system but allows all current iOS users to conduct NFC payments now.

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